Recent excavations at the ancient Egyptian harbor at Mersa/Wadi Gawasis, on the Red Sea, have uncovered evidence of shrines aligned along the shore of the Red Sea and harbor facilities farther inland, including eight man-made caves located above an ancient lagoon that extended considerably inland from where the present-day shoreline is located. The harbor was used for the seafaring expeditions to Punt and Bia-Punt, located somewhere in the southern Red Sea region, and pottery and materials from the southern Red Sea have been excavated at this site along with ship timbers, equipment, and food remains used on these expeditions. Hieroglyphic and hieratic texts on stelae, seal impressions, and ostraca combine with the associated pottery to aid in dating different features at the site to the early and later 12th Dynasty (circa 1991–1784 BCE).